400 years of Dutch-Thai diplomatic relations (Part 1)

Posted by paul on December 23rd, 2008 filed in Uncategorized

The beginning of Dutch-Thai diplomatic relations started four centuries ago. Two ambassadors on a Dutch vessel arrived on September 10, 1608 to present King Ekathotsarot’s traditional gold letter on gold leaf to the “King of Holland” along with precious gifts of daggers and firearms. However, strangely not a single soul tried to inform Ekathotsarot or one of his loyal servants about the fact that a Dutch king didn’t existed.

Statue of King Ekathotsarot 

At that time The Netherlands was a republic where the state’s general exercised legislative power and Prince Maurits of Orange-Nassau, the stadtholder executive power.  The year didn’t mark the start of contacts between the nations, since Pattani – then one of Siam’s vassals ruled by a queen – in 1601 had signed a pact , not long after Admiral Jacob van Neck’s arrival with a fleet of six ships in search of spices.

In 1608 in Ayutthaya the Dutch opened a base and the Dutch organisational skills impressed the Siamese King. The mission to Europe in 1608 should have had the normal addition of three envoys, but according to the pair who did arrive, one refused to leave. For that he was “roasted in a heated cauldron in which he languished for a month until he expired”, according to a report of the visit published at the time in France. The voyage nearly didn’t take place at all.

Fifteen persons turned up in Bantem’s Siamese delegation, then the Dutch operations’ centre in the Indies, on December 21, 1607, leaving the Dutch East Indies Company’s thrifty merchants aghast at the unforeseen expenditure. The VOC’s head in Ayutthaya, Cornelis Speckx was rapped on the knuckles for not obtaining permission beforehand.

Speckx explained that the King of Siam’s power was more significant than other rulers who had sent ambassadors, and it would cause severe offence if these were refused. The Siamese mission seems largely the king’s idea. He was absolutely impressed by Dutch power and possibly wanted to figure out the truth behind the Portuguese, who were longer established in Siam claiming that the Dutch were not more than a bunch of buccaneers with no land of their own.

So the returning Dutch fleet’s admiral, Matelieff did accept both chief ambassadors and “sent the rest back to Siam with many compliments”. The envoys didn’t loose time in being introduced to Prince Maurice, and observed the usual Siamese protocol of crawling with heads lowered and solely being persuaded with difficulty to stand in the presence of the Dutch “king”. 

Thai history in brief

Stay tuned for part 2…